Thank you for the advanced reading copy from NetGalley. For violins and vampires by cee bee. Which is Christina Bauer. I should have dropped the book when I realized it was the same author. The story premise was bland, the romance was nonexistent. The errors in the books, well too many. This should have been edited before being released. Really I don’t understand how this author can keep writing with her novels being unfinished before release.

First of all say that I like vampires, but I feel that this book did not work for me. The way it's written it can't possibly be adult genre, this is definitely YA.

There is a mix between vampires and mafia, and a continuous change of time, added to a huge number of characters, which makes the plot confusing and boring. I wish the structure would have been better.
Also there is no great character development. In the plot there is an 11-year-old girl who is the mature part of the book compared to the adults (which is not credible).

A book with a promised plot, but in my case did not worked.

This book was 0k. I had fun time reading it and I look forward to seeing where the story goes. It was definitely easy to read and the plot was really interesting.

"Violins and Vampires - Extended Edition" is a fast paced and easily readable urban fantasy romp that combines elements of "Twilight", "Shadow and Bone" and "Once Upon a Time". The actual story is hard to follow in places and it generally feels confusing and incomplete. The characters are interesting, but their back stories seem very incomplete and there is little development of their roles throughout the novel. Hopefully, the next few volumes will flesh things out a bit for the series. In any case, this book could use more violins.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author Cee Bee (Christina Bauer) and the publisher Monster House Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Monster House books for this opportunity to read rage and review this arc which is available now.

I did not like this book. I was not invested. I found it immature and all over the place. It had way too many tropes and made zero sense. It cherry picked from across genre but they didn’t mesh together well.

This was really not what I expected. Now I absolutely love vampire books, but this just did not work for me. Firstly I found the Scottish accent to be a tad bit annoying and unneeded (I'm not Scottish but I am British and it kind of felt like a caricature) also this felt like more of a Y.A. or younger it did not feel like a Adult romance, especially seeing as the main love interests barely interact. I think this would have worked better with it being set more in present day with a focus on the romance and flashbacks occasionally to the past as secrets get revealed but sadly because of the layout and writing style this fell too flat for me and I won't be reading the rest in the series.

Do you like supernatural beings? Vampires? Mafia?

The first half of this book was a struggle. I won't lie. It was hard to keep track of things and the people. I at one point had to start over and reread the whole first half again. That being said, I did enjoy this book.

I liked the supernatural beings this book brought to life. There is romance in the book. It is not an in your face romance but more of a slow burn. I really enjoyed the mafia and organised crime aspect of the story. The world building was good as well.


I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I flat out REFUSE to believe that this is the same author that gave me my beloved Scala series. This doesn’t feel like a change in pen name for me, it feels like a complete change in author.

I adored the Scala series, from the characters to the setting to the story. It was a bit silly but still well thought out and it MADE SENSE.

Nothing in this book made sense to me. There was absolutely no depth to any of it. I had no clue what was going on. We’ve got ancient Scottish and Russian vampires whose women have come down with a mysterious plague no one has a cure for. We’ve got a weird water spirit that they ask to help whose vocabulary was too modern and honestly extremely annoying. Then we jump forward 1000 years to todays times and the same 1000 year old vampires are running businesses and are part of mafias and we’ve got amnesia school girls and??? What??

I mean, the main characters dad *dips out* and it’s not even spoken about. Literally just glossed over without so much as a nod to it. Really?

The writing style did improve how convoluted the plot was. Nothing was explained. Things just happened without context and we were left to just try and fill in the blanks ourselves, which works in some books but not this. This wasn’t a story that worked with leaving things up to interpretation.

I would usually say I’m maybe too old now for this but I don’t even think that’s the case. So disappointed considering Bauer was a go-to author for me before this.

I am a huge fan of vampire books, but this one missed the mark for me. The first quarter of the book was a struggle, but I did push through and it did get better. It was the writing that I could not vibe with. The pacing felt off despite the second half of the book finally moving the story along. The editor could have also done another pass with this one.

This was a fantastic start to a series. Taking a new spin on the vampire/supernatural genre, Cee Bee takes readers through an intriguing journey of family feuds, Russian mobsters and supernatural genetic manipulation.

When King Caelin's wife dies of a disease targeting only female born vampires, he joins forces with his brother-in-law, Konstantin. Complicating the relationship is the fact that Caelin killed Konstantin's father. Now, they are united in their grief which spans thousands of years.

As born-vampire children, Lexa tried desperately to save her sister Sasha from the disease and sought supernatural help. Instead, they were frozen in time and have now been awakened in modern day America where Lexa has no memories of her past and now works for Konstantin.

Highly engaging and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Literally the only reason I didn’t dnf this is because it was on the shorter side. When you read a book, you want the author to show, not tell. This was very much the opposite.

Having the story broken into three sections of A Thousand Years Ago, Seven Years Ago and Present just didn’t work. I didn’t see the reason that certain scenes were included. Our two main characters barely even interacted throughout the entire book!

This one just didn’t work for me and I probably will not continue with the rest of the series.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I am happy I paused my scrolling for this book, with that eye catching cover who wouldn't. I enjoyed reading it. The story really does capture you from the beginning. I was not expecting anything with this book, the character development was great the whole story is just well written. It's fascinating how everything changed years later and her mom says that her memories are hallucinations, everything comes together great and the romance is .... Chefs kiss!!

Book Name: Violins and Vampires - Extended Edition
Author: Cee Bee

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and Monster House Books for an ARC of Violins and Vampires - Extended Edition by Cee Bee

Stars: 2.75

Spice : NA

1st book in “republished” Amazon Vela Series …..
Cliffhanger:
Fast Paced
Plot Centric
Dual POV
Urban Fantasy Romance

- Tropes
- Fated Mates
- Time “Jump”
- Primal Alpha Male

- Thoughts.
- Great Concept
- writing Style is disjointed
- Can tell it’s an Amazon Vela Original
- Tell > show
- Clunky world building
- Reads Fast.
- Read in one sitting
Addictive

I couldn't really get into this book. The characters didn't interest me at all. I was excited to read this from the description but it fell flat for me.

I received a copy of this in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

The coverart of this book caught my eye, and that's pretty much why I requested to read it. This isn't my go to trope / genre, but I am glad I was lucky enough to get a copy.

The author did an amazing job with the character development.
The world building was... out of this world. The details, the dynamics, I felt like I could picture what I was reading, and that's the goal isn't it?
I also think it's fun that the book starts off in "older times" Scotland and ends in present day NYC.
The heroine was amazing. I'll definitely be checking out book two when I can.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Violins and Vampires, Extended edition, by Cee Bee. This is the first in the Daemonverse series. The cover of the book drew me in first. It’s beautiful.The story follows Lexa and Caelin. The book jumps around a bit, but is easy enough to follow. The world building is well done, and the characters are fleshed out nicely. Overall, a delightful story, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Lexa Uzntsov is a young woman - or so she believes- who is actually a +1,000 year old vampire with no memories of the past, and was raised by a human as a human child. Her human father has been stealing from the Konstantin, who is also a +1,000 year old vampire and the leader of the New York Bratva. Proving herself resourceful and because of her mother's 'genius', she ends up working for Konstantin and gathering information. on clients,
Caelin MacGregor is also a +1,000 year old vampire who used to be king of his clan before a plague swept through and destroyed all female bloodkin; taking his wife and child. Now in modern New York, Caelin is a successful business man with no real desires to carry him through day-to-day life. He has a sense of duty to his late wife to keep Konstantin alive, but other than that he seems to live a very recluse lifestyle.

I REALLY wanted to love this, but it definitely fell flat.

It's too short - It's hard to believe that this is the extended edition with the number of scenes and interactions it felt too short as it was. I feel like there are good bones, but scenes and character interactions rarely felt complete. Because of the length you don't really get any character development - the first few chapters are in the distant past, and the subsequent book is the present, and yet none of the characters seem to have changed at all.

Pacing - The overall pacing of the story was weird. It started off strong, with well constructed settings and then everything just started to happen at once. There didn't seem to be logic behind some decisions making, a lot of things just seemed to happen 'just because'. At the very end of the book the author has a Q&A section, one answer she details "Before I start a book, I know the key beats I want to hit", and it definitely reads that way too. It can easily pick out the key points because everything else just gets slapped in between.

Note - I love the cover art, it's beautiful. While I usually don't hate when author's tie it into the story, but this DEFINITELY felt like an after thought ('just because' moment).

That being said, I really enjoyed the overall plot of the book and plan to read book 2.

Thank you to author Cee Bee and NetGalley for the ARC.

So to start, for anyone reading this review, this is not a Y.A. book (I typically read a mix of Y.A. and Adult fantasy).

This book is 100% a romance with world elements woven in a magical way. I believe this story is set in the modern era. At the story's beginning, we meet Lexa, the female main character, as a vampire. Yet, she grows up believing she is human (due to magical intervention), and her memories of the past are simply hallucinations. The book follows a 'will they, won't they' structure.

The pros: I enjoyed the writing style and pacing, though the book felt short and, in some ways, like a 'part 1' of a larger novel. The male MC is interesting. I am curious as to where he will go. The world-building and fantasy elements are brilliantly executed. There are unique and refreshing elements to this story.

The cons: the female main character is a typical sassy, takes no B.S., etc. While I don't mind this type of main character, I'd like a bit of variety (though this personality type helps with the 'will they, won't they'). Oddly enough, per my personal preference, I would have liked further exploration of the psychological aspects. This book feels short. It's well executed, so there is nothing wrong with it being short, but again, I prefer that the book be at least twice the length.

Overall: This was a pleasant and quick read. I recommend it if you are looking for a vampire romance where things aren't 'easy'.

this was such a great read thank you for giving me the extended edition an making my wish come true! i loved the color i fell in love when i saw it. this book made me keep turning the pages, i also loved the mc!

DNF at 10%

Sadly this wasn’t for me. The writing style felt really weird, like some random scenes were just put together. Therefore it didn’t feel like a continuous story.

The writing style in general felt a little weird and immature and I did not feel connected to the characters. The descriptions were really weird. In the beginning it was mentinioned that a character might be sick and then two pages later she dies. It felt like something was missing.

All in all, it read more Iike a fanfiction than a book.

- April 2023